Sacramone not selected for Olympics return

Evan MacDonald/emacdonald@wickedlocal.com

Tuesday

Jul 3, 2012 at 12:01 AMJul 3, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Despite a strong showing at the Olympic Trials this past weekend, Winchester native Alicia Sacramone was not selected for the U.S. gymnastics team that will compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Despite a strong showing at the Olympic Trials this past weekend, Winchester native Alicia Sacramone was not selected for the U.S. gymnastics team that will compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

In what could have been the final event of her career, Sacramone finished second on both the vault and the balance beam at the competition, which took place June 29 and July 1 in San Jose, Calif. But it was not enough to secure one of the five spots on the American team or one of the three alternate positions.

Early Monday, Sacramone suggested she will retire.

“I leave this sport with no regrets,” Sacramone wrote on her Twitter feed early Monday.

If the Olympic trials were the final event of Sacramone’s career, she will retire as the most decorated American gymnast in the history of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship with 10 medals. She also won 19 medals at the Visa Championships, which serve as U.S.A. Gymnastics’ national championships.

Sacramone, 24, was the captain of the U.S. team that won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and won the world championship in the vault in 2010.

But the odds were against her making a second consecutive Olympic team, after she tore her right Achilles’ tendon at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo last October.

She came back strong at the 2012 Visa Championships—her first competition since the injury—three weeks ago, taking first place in the vault and third in the balance beam.

The weekend was better for Needham native Aly Raisman, who will be going to London after recording the top scores on both the balance beam and the floor exercises. Raisman trains with Sacramone at Brestyan’s American Gymnastics Club in Burlington.